Humor, Laughter and Power

What do we know about laughter?  Everyone knows it feels good to laugh.  But have you ever marveled at how we laugh at just the right times?  We do it without consciously knowing why.  Laughter is not only totally spontaneous but also primarily social.  In fact, we are also 30 times more likely to laugh when we are with others than alone.  So, while laughter may make us feel good, it relies heavily on an audience.  Research confirms that laughter is a social construct, much like language, except that it is an unwitting response to social and linguistic cues.  When we laugh, we do it much more for others than for ourselves even though the serotonin released when laughing feels great.

What else do we know about humor and laughter?  What fundamental purpose does laughter serve?  Here’s what researchers have found.

1. Laughter is universal – Laughter is a part of universal human communication, produced and recognized by people of all cultures.  It is primarily a social vocalization that binds people together… a sort of ‘hidden language’ that all people not only utter (or squeal or chortle or snort) but also understand, even if speaking different languages.  But, it is not a learned group reaction.  It really is more of an instinctive programmed behavior.  It is programmed into most everyone, yet what each person finds funny varies widely.  In fact, only 10-20% of all laughter episodes are in response to a joke.
2. Laughter is not gender-neutral – While all people laugh, how much we laugh varies by gender.  Women laugh 126% more than men.   While women may laugh more, men are often the ones trying to make others laugh.  Overall, men try harder to be funny.  They are the main instigators of humor across all cultures and nationalities and across the ages.  This starts at a very early age.  Even in school, boys are more likely to be class clowns.  That doesn’t mean that women can’t also be funny, but they usually don’t try as hard to elicit laughter.
3. Laughter is a social activity for others — We say funny things basically to make others laugh, but ironically, studies have found that those who say funny things laugh about 50% more than those listening to humorous remarks.  So, the more we try to make others laugh, the more we ourselves laugh.  And yet, without other people, we really don’t laugh much at all.
4. Laughter is spontaneous — While laughter is social, it takes more than just being with others to evoke laughter.  Playfulness, liveliness, mischievousness, light-heartedness, being with others, and a positive emotional tone are the social cues that can provoke laugher.  That means laughter is social and spontaneous.  People do not and cannot laugh on command (at least not genuinely).  We cannot deliberately activate our brain mechanisms for affective expression.
5. Laughter is contagious – While it cannot be forced, laughter is contagious.  Because it is under minimal conscious control and totally uncensored, laughter is infectious and transmittable.  If that sounds a bit exaggerated – especially on the heels of a truly contagious pandemic — then consider that there was an actual outbreak of laughter that spread just like a virus in a girl’s boarding school in Tanzania.  The contagious laughter started on January 30, 1962 when three girls got the giggles and simply could not stop laughing. It quickly spread to 95 students, and continued for weeks.  The school finally closed on March 18 in order to send the girls home. It then spread to other communities causing the temporary closure of 14 schools in Central Africa.  The uncontrollable laughter was documented to have lasted several months.  It stopped altogether finally two-and-a-half years later after afflicting nearly 1,000 people.But this is not just something that afflicts schoolgirls.  It is well-established that just hearing other people laugh is bound to make someone laugh even without knowing what the others are laughing at.  This explains why entertainment programs since the early 1950s have been adding a “laugh track” (recording of people laughing) in the background when there is no audience just to make viewers laugh along.  It also explains why top comedians usually have someone “warm up” an audience so that they are already primed to laugh.
6. Laughter signals power and position – There is a direct connection between how we laugh and our social position in any given setting.  Case in point. Researchers at Cambridge University found that mutual laughter was a sign of rapport and consensus during the recruiting and hiring process.  In their study, they found that in job interviews that resulted in a job offer there was more mutual laughter than in those involving applicants who were unsuccessful in getting a job offer.  On the other hand, unilateral laughter (where one person alone was being funny and laughing) was used to modify verbal expressions or attitudes and was used to help in handling ambiguities and tension.

The actual sounds made by people laughing also speaks volumes, for those who know how to decipher the social cues being shared.  The acoustic difference between howls, chortles, titters and snickers contains meaningful information.  Laughter has been found to serve different functions depending on the social context. Sometimes laughter serves as a social reward. Sometimes it is used to smooth over social tension and promote affiliation. And, sometimes it is used to reprimand or tease the target, establishing dominance.

When used to establish dominance, it is found that louder, more uninhibited laughter – such as a loud belly laugh or guffaw – is demonstrated by those who are more powerful and have greater social standing.  Whereas softer, more restrained laughter – such as chuckles and giggles – is demonstrated by those who were less powerful in a group.  In studies, deference or affiliation laughter was shorter, quieter, and muffled, while dominance laughter was actually a little irritating in that it was brighter, less voiced, noisier.  This was confirmed in the visual modulations of cerebral connectivity associated with different laughter types using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This is useful information for professionals who work in a department or collaborate with groups, and really valuable to know when networking.

The Goal is Shared Laughter

Victor Borge once wrote, “Laughter is, the closest distance between two people.” While laughter can be a social lubricant, not all laugher connects and unites people.  Genuine laughter feels good but only shared laughter communicates that ‘we have a similar worldview.’  Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill were able to confirm that only ‘shared laughter’ is the kind of laughter that strengthens relationships.

For people laughing together, shared laughter signals that they see the world in the same way, and it momentarily boosts their sense of connection.  That perceived similarity is an important part of the story of relationships.  And, people who have more shared laughter with a person (compared to those with whom they spent time but did not laugh) will see themselves as more similar to that person and more satisfied with that relationship. This is true regardless of the length of the relationship or any expressions of closeness.  Shared laughter has also been linked to people’s overall evaluations of quality and social support in their relationships.  It is ‘sharing a laugh’—not just laughter, in general—that benefits relationships most.  Shared laughter signals that both people see the world in the same way, and that is a powerful glue that binds people.

So how does this translate into the workplace?  Shared laughter is a really important, but often overlooked behavior.  It has a lot of potential for helping people grease the wheels of everyday work relationships.  Leaders and managers of teams may want to find opportunities for shared laughter with colleagues in order to boost closeness, especially before having difficult or conflict-prone conversations.  Laughter can also be incorporated into staff meetings to make people feel that they are on the same page, which will boost productivity. Instead of team-building activities, companies should focus on shared-laughing experiences… opportunities for colleagues to share laughter.

Did you hear the one about the marketer, the accountant and the engineer?  The marketer said the glass was half-full.  The accountant said the glass was half-empty.  But, the engineer said they were both wrong… that the glass was twice as big as necessary.  Share that at the next office meeting and see if you can all share a laugh.

Quote of the Week

“There is little success where there is little laughter.” Andrew Carnegie

© 2021, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.